An ‘America First’ Immigration Policy

There are a lot of things right with Donald Trump’s immigration vision and a few things that are misguided. It’s worth reviewing which is which.

I was privileged to learn my immigration economics and history from the very best, Julian Simon. I was a research assistant for his classic book “The Economic Consequences of Immigration into the United States,” which, nearly 30 years after publication, remains the best tutorial out there for anyone who wants to understand how immigrants affect our jobs and our pocketbooks.

Every policymaker working on the issue today would be the wiser if they went back and read it.

The big picture starts with this: America greatly benefits economically from a steady flow of immigrants (currently about 1 million new legal arrivals each year) — always has and hopefully always will. It’s not a cliche that we import the best, brightest and hardest working from all over the world.

Immigrants’ age profile is beneficial to the U.S. They tend to come to the United States when they are young — between the ages of 16 and 35. They are educated in China, or Mexico, or Germany, or Ireland, and then America gets most or all of the benefits of their labor and the public return on the education.

This is one of the greatest wealth transfers in the history of the world. It is worth trillions of dollars to American citizens. Not every immigrant turns out to be an asset — and, yes, there are bad apples — but America’s ability to import human capital at virtually no cost is arguably one of our greatest comparative advantages in the global economy.

Immigrants are especially beneficial now because of our unfavorable demographic situation. We have some 75 million baby boomers who are retiring at the pace of 10,000 a day, and there aren’t enough young people to fill the gaps. Immigrants can and hopefully will — or else Social Security and Medicare will go belly up much faster than anyone imagines.

So what are the central components of an “America First” immigration policy?

–Build the wall, but make sure it has big gates. Getting tough on illegal immigration makes sense, but we should not cut back on the number of visas for legal immigrants. We need them.

–President Trump is right that we should move to a merit-based immigration system. While most immigrants give more than they receive, it is incontrovertible that the fiscal and economic benefits of immigrants are directly correlated to their skills, special talents, knowledge of English, educational attainment and entrepreneurial abilities.

–Since there is such a high global demand for entry into the U.S., we should set a price on these visas, perhaps $25,000 or even $50,000. We could raise about $20 billion a year to reduce the budget deficit. There would be no shortage of people lining up to pay the entry fee in exchange for the most valuable resource in the world: an American passport.

–Issue work visas for farm and other seasonal workers. These should be temporary visas that authorize these migrants to work and reside here. Americans aren’t going to work in the fields. Period.

–End the visa family category for parents of immigrants. There is no benefit to bringing in people over the age of 60. They are likely to use Supplemental Security Income and Medicaid benefits, while having paid little in taxes.

–Immigration, yes — but welfare, no. Immigrants should not be eligible for any nonmedical welfare benefits. The current restrictions — on food stamps, housing benefits, SSI, disability and so on — have been unenforced for years. Immigrants who need financial assistance should get it from their sponsors, churches, charities or relatives, not American taxpayers. We need E-verify not just at workplaces but also in welfare offices. Immigrants who do go on welfare should have their visas suspended.

Under these conditions, it’s hard to imagine that millions of bright, hardworking and freedom-seeking immigrants would not want to come to the United States. The most valuable asset in the world is a U.S. passport, and we should stop giving it away for free.

Stephen Moore is a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and an economic consultant with Freedom Works. He is the co-author of “Fueling Freedom: Exposing the Mad War on Energy.” To find out more about Stephen Moore and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

Related

Comments

Stephen­ Moore is an economics journalist, author, and columnist who served as the senior economics writer for the Wall Street Journal editorial page and as member of the Journal's editorial board. He continues to be a regular contributor at The Wall Street Journal and other outlets, such as Fox News, CNN and CNBC, and writes a nationally syndicated political column .
Currently, Moore is the chief economist for the Institute for Economic Freedom and Opportunity, recently released "An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of States," which explains why eliminating or lowering tax burdens at the state level leads to economic growth and wealth creation. This is the latest of many books he has co-authored.
In his earlier career he Moore was founder and president of the Club for Growth, a 25,000-member organization dedicated to helping elect free market, tax-cutting candidates to Congress and served as the Grover M. Hermann Fellow in Budgetary Affairs at The Heritage Foundation.

You may also like

2 Responses

Deplorable Lanie

March 15, 2018

I agree 1000%!!! I can get behind this immigration plan.

Idaho Granny

March 16, 2018

I say ENOUGH ALREADY! I am sorry for all the people stuck in “s—hole countries” but when we let them come here, we BECOME a s—hole country! I am sorry for all the good people stuck in California, too, but we already have TOO MANY of them in Idaho and we do not NEED any more!

This copyrighted material may not be republished without express permission. The information presented here is for general educational purposes only. MATERIAL CONNECTION DISCLOSURE: You should assume that this website has an affiliate relationship and/or another material connection to the persons or businesses mentioned in or linked to from this page and may receive commissions from purchases you make on subsequent web sites. You should not rely solely on information contained in this email to evaluate the product or service being endorsed. Always exercise due diligence before purchasing any product or service. This website contains advertisements.